Girls with Cake

Ahh being back home from our Art Is You trip has us filled with mixed emotions. We're missing our friends, missing the artsy energy and environment…just so many creative folks under one roof…you can take a walk to get some coffee and you'll pass rooms that are humming with art…anything from soldering, sewing, painting, sculpting…all in a 5 minute walk. We're missing getting and giving hugs all throughout the day, and seeing friends we have known for years online.

But even though the event is over, the great energy is still with us. We're home, all of our stuff is unpacked, we're thrilled to be eating home cooked food, and work-wise we're back in the swing of things...and feeling more inspired than ever. Being at Art Is You reminds us to make more time for making personal artwork. We make art daily, but 95% of it is our WORK. Which, don't get me wrong, we love our work. But we need to make more of the art that speaks directly to our souls. Way more Art Journaling has to happen, and we have to take more time for fun and exploring new mediums and techniques. : )

Today while a bunch of orders dried, we did just that. I had started this canvas a long time ago and put it away. I had been meaning to pull it out and rework it, and finish it...and today that happened!

Maybe my favorite detail is the simplest part…it has this fantastic crackle textured background. And of course it was loads of fun working on these sweet gals.

And painting cakes is certainly on my list of favorite things. I love the texture on this one…it's my signature frosting technique...molding paste mixed with paint.

I also love re-painting vintage wallpaper bits and cutting and pasting them into paintings.

I shared some of the fantastic old photos I had purchased at Art Is You in my recap post. Well I had also picked up some vintage newspaper, which is perfect to use in our mixed media projects and art journals. We hadn't opened up the paper pack until today, and ohhh boy! This particular publication cracked us up. It's a 1975 edition of The Daily Express from the UK. And oh my gosh the headlines are insanity! All Doom and Gloom!

And I heard from a UK friend that The Daily Express isn't any different today in 2014! ha!

Aaron got a big kick out of this article on the sports page. Apparently there was some controversy over some soccer players who were sore losers and kicked a hole in the door in the opposing team's locker room.

Well the gist of the story is that the team blamed a mouse for the hole in the door…saying that either the mouse chewed the hole, or possibly a player was scared of the mouse and tried to kick it but partially missed and ended up kicking a hole in the door. They said to be on the lookout for a limping Coventry mouse with broken feet or teeth. ha!

We used some of the more subtle pages of the paper on the edges of our canvases. I love how old newspapers are so perfectly yellowed!

And check out that corner of the canvas. This is what I call a "sweet spot". I love the distressed floral cluster, and the way the wash settles into the crackle…and I die for that faint aqua glow.

Here is my finished canvas. Don't these girls look sooo psyched about their cakes?! ha! Maybe they are in a sugar coma? I honestly love turn of the century portraits of children...they are rarely smiling. I find that so interesting.

I really love how this piece turned out. I'm so glad that these girls are no longer on a shelf in the closet! I'm really looking forward to painting lots more in this series.

Wait until you see the piece Aaron worked on today!! It is sooo good! I nearly died! Ok not really… but almost.

Hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks bunches for popping in!

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Thanks so much for reading! We absolutely love to hear from you guys...so please leave a comment if the mood strikes you, or if you have any questions for us about a recipe, project, art supply , paint color, etc. Don't panic if your comment doesn't appear right away...we moderate all comments to avoid getting tons of spam. Thanks again!!xo Jenny & Aaron